Rosetta EOM, End of mission alternatives Options

[jasedm]

A little premature perhaps, but I was wondering if there were as yet any firm plans for disposing of/de-commissioning Rosetta at the end of the mission?

The Rosetta website FAQ section states in answers, that a decision on this would be made in late 2014, but I've been unable to turn up any information relating to it.

A six-month extension has been mooted and I presume this would involve some closer approaches to 67P towards the EOM, with subsequent very high resolution studies.

The propellant issue is, as ever the prime governing factor (aside from funding of course) especially in view of the existing leak in the reaction control system onboard the spacecraft.

It would be great to think that Rosetta could be landed on the comet as NEAR did at Eros, with similar images transmitted all the way down, or a short 'hover' a few tens of metres above a particularly active part of the surface long enough to directly sample jets, or image particles as they come away from the comet.

Should the mission be able to pin down Philae's location in the coming months, might there even be an opportunity to image the lander at a reasonable resolution?

Jase

[Sherbert]

Matt Taylor also joked about the idea of flying along the Hapi Valley between the cliffs. Parking Rosetta in some stable orbit would seem unlikely as the power question raises its head again. We know now that comet activity can affect any such orbit. Even if there is a suitable Lagrange point, I doubt that would be stable enough in such an elliptical orbit to not require manoeuvres to maintain Rosetta's position during another 2 -3 year period of hibernation. The final decision may depend upon whether Philae wakes up and can do more science. If Philae is lost, an attempt at a very close flyby and attempted soft landing would seem inevitable. Were Philae to reawaken and carry out a significant program of further science, the decision may be to place Rosetta in a solar orbit in the slim hope of investigating further wanderers into the inner solar system. In this case fuel management becomes a major priority and the effects on Rosetta's current mission priorities may rule out this option as well.

An attempted landing on the comet towards the end of summer 2016 looks the most likely. The information and experience the flight operations and flight dynamics team would gain would justify it alone. Small solar system bodies are a vast, almost inexhaustible, store of resources needed for both long term Solar System exploration and to reduce the burden on Earths natural resources and environment. If Asteroid mining is going to become a reality, learning how to land on them is a number one priority. Any chance to learn more about how to do it, or not to do it, should not be missed in my view.